First Mission

"Yes, Sarutobi-sensei!" Ueno Kei replied steadily.

"Hmm. From now on, whenever you have no missions, come here periodically. I will make time to guide your training." The Third Hokage spoke slowly.

"Yes!" Ueno Kei answered respectfully. He had originally thought that joining the Anbu and gaining the right to read the Scroll of Sealing was the greatest surprise, but he had not expected the Third Hokage to personally set aside time to instruct him.

This surprise was even greater, and Ueno Kei's feelings of closeness and respect for the Third Hokage deepened. This was only human nature; even among elders, people subconsciously form impressions of and feel closer to those who provide them with benefits and show them care.

This could not be called snobbery, or anything of the sort.

People are just like that.

The Third Hokage seemed to suddenly recall something and added, "Kei, at this stage, your training objective should be to increase your ninja experience and learn a few practical, easy-to-master ninjutsu. Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

"Also, Kei, watch closely. This is the hand seal for the Summoning Jutsu. Remember it clearly. Of course, your current chakra levels are not enough to use the Summoning Jutsu; after all, if it is a large summoning beast, the amount of chakra required is immense."

The Third Hokage said this calmly. Ueno Kei was slightly stunned. How did the Third know he possessed a Summoning Scroll? He immediately realized: his own strength was so weak, and the Third Hokage was the leader of the village; it was not strange for him to know what happened within the village.

Although the Third Hokage had now become his teacher and would not do anything to him, it still served as a wake-up call for Ueno Kei, reminding him that he must improve his sensory abilities in the future. Otherwise, if he were ambushed so easily, he would have nowhere to run.

Of course, Ueno Kei did not know that the Third Hokage observed the village's situation using a special method like the Crystal Ball; he simply assumed that the Anbu had reported his situation to the Third Hokage.

Ueno Kei watched the Third Hokage's movements without blinking. To ensure Ueno Kei could better memorize the sequence of seals, the Third Hokage slowed down his speed.

"Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram." The Third Hokage demonstrated the hand seals for the Summoning Jutsu for Ueno Kei.

Ueno Kei nodded slightly to indicate he had memorized them. In fact, the hand seals for the Summoning Jutsu were quite simple; the most difficult part of the Summoning Jutsu lay in obtaining the Summoning Scroll, and if one had not already signed a contract on the scroll, the process was different.

When using the Summoning Jutsu for the first time to summon a beast, one had to gain the beast's recognition, or even the recognition of the beast's entire clan.

This was the true difficulty, not what the world believed—that one could summon and command beasts at will simply by obtaining a scroll and signing it. The intelligence of summoning beasts was also extraordinary.

Much like humans, if your strength was weak or you failed to gain their recognition in certain aspects, even if you had the scroll, wanting to command them? Heh, that was almost impossible.

Although there had never been a case in the ninja world of a summoning beast breaking a contract, no one could be certain that such a thing would never happen.

Because the contract formed by the Summoning Jutsu was by no means the master-servant contract that ordinary civilians imagined, but a contract of equal combat!

This point was crucial. Of course, generally speaking, once the contract was signed and the beast recognized the summoner, the beast would almost never betray the contractor for life. In battle, even if they were severely wounded and near death, they would not withdraw from the fight.

This was why so many ninjas in the ninja world longed to obtain a summoning beast.

Seeing that Ueno Kei had memorized the seals, the Third Hokage gave a few more key instructions regarding the precautions for the Summoning Jutsu, then turned and left the room.

Ueno Kei gazed at the Third Hokage's figure as it gradually disappeared into the night, a hint of excitement resurfacing on his face.

Immediately, Ueno Kei sat cross-legged on the floor and impatiently opened the Scroll of Sealing. The seal placed upon the scroll had been removed by the Third Hokage earlier, and after three days, once Ueno Kei had finished reading, it would be reapplied.

Over the next three days, Ueno Kei stayed in this room almost without leaving. He knew that time was extremely precious. Although he was now a student of the Third Hokage and his status was considered important, whether he would have another opportunity to access the Scroll of Sealing in the future was an unknown.

The current time was incredibly valuable.

In short, he would find a few ninjutsu he could use now and in the coming years to memorize; as for the rest, no matter how much Ueno Kei coveted them, he knew that being too greedy was unrealistic.

Three days passed in a flash.

On this day, the weather was clear and the sky was cloudless. Beneath the dense, leafy canopy, several figures appeared and disappeared intermittently.

"Qian, has the captain not arrived yet?" one of the more burly figures asked in a low voice.

"It should be about time. The captain sent word earlier that he was almost here," a smaller, more delicate figure replied.

Through the faint sunlight filtering between the leaves, one could barely discern four figures, all wearing standard Anbu uniforms with Konoha Ninja Village headbands on their foreheads.

This was the team Ueno Kei belonged to: the Akamatsu squad.

Ueno Kei was among them, but as this was his first mission, he appeared very silent. He did not say a word, knowing that to this team, he was a rookie who couldn't be any greener. Whether in terms of experience, strength, or seniority, he was worlds apart from the other three.

Of course, the three senior teammates did not say much to Ueno Kei either; the Anbu was not a place that emphasized gentleness and humility.

They valued unity and coordination, but if someone were to act recklessly and drag the team down, the rest of the team would abandon that person without hesitation.

Ninjas themselves took the mission as their primary objective!

This was even more true for ninjas in the Anbu.

The mission was their life! As the elite tier of every ninja village, everything they did was actually unknown to the village. It could be said that the people of the Anbu were all unsung heroes. This led to the fact that no matter how great a contribution you made, if you died or something happened, apart from the village's top brass, no one would know. Therefore, the personalities of the Anbu members had all become somewhat extreme, with nothing in their eyes but the mission.

Suddenly, the four figures stiffened slightly, their bodies tensing as they quickly entered a combat stance, for they had all sensed a powerful chakra rapidly approaching.

A moment later, the four lowered the kunai in their hands, for the person arriving was none other than their team captain, the Jonin Akamatsu!

Akamatsu scanned his four subordinates coldly and said in a low voice, "This mission is to wipe out a bandit gathering point at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water, and then rendezvous with our village's ninjas to recover classified documents from within!"

"Yes!" the four replied in low voices. However, Ueno Kei felt a bit strange inside. A bandit gathering point? At most, it was a B-rank mission, or perhaps even a C-rank mission. Did it require an entire Anbu squad?

Akamatsu's next words cleared up the doubt in Ueno Kei's heart.